Telemark trek will test modern Marines

Tarquin Cooper prepares to re-enact a WWII expedition.

Over the top: Bernie Shrosbree trains Tarquin Cooper for the Heroes of Telemark challengePhoto: PHILIP HOLLIS

By Tarquin Cooper

10:00AM GMT 05 Mar 2010

"We'll be skiing 1,000km, that's 50km a day for 20 days. You up to that?" The man asking me is Bernie Shrosbree, Special Boat Service veteran and elite performance coach.

I have an inkling I may live to regret my affirmative answer.

Next week I am to join a 12-man team of Royal Marines on an epic 700-mile cross-country ski expedition across Norway. The plan is to retrace the route taken by Norwegian commandos before their raid on a Nazi atomic weapons factory, a story immortalised in the Kirk Douglas film The Heroes of Telemark, and more recently by Ray Mears on television.

To knock me into shape, I'm put in the hands of a fellow member of the team, 51-year-old Bernie, who trains the likes of Formula One drivers Jenson Button and Mark Webber, and Olympic cycling and rowing medallist Rebecca Romero.

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We meet at his training centre at Sandbanks, Poole, the exclusive enclave beloved by footballers and millionaires. Unfortunately, no luxuries await – just an old-fashioned Royal Marine cold-weather initiation.

"So the plan is for you to go for a swim in the sea and then put your bike together. Are you OK with that?" Bernie asks.

It's cold and an onshore wind is gusting at 30mph. The wind-chill temperature is 23F (-5C). I don't need to be a doctor to know that standing around naked after a swim is not recommended.

The idea is to replicate the kind of scenario I'll meet in Norway, when the cold reduces simple tasks like putting up a tent to a challenging mental ordeal.

"You have to be able to think and perform in an extreme environment when the elements are against you. Anyone can be cold and miserable," Bernie says.

First, I run up and down the beach to get warm. Then I strip down to my undies and in the finest British tradition, run into the sea like a madman. In an instant, the cold grips me like a vice. I try to remember Bernie's words to push on through the pain. After 10 metres I hear him calling me to turn around. Back on the beach, the real challenge begins – trying to slot my rear wheel into place and put the chain on – while a piercing wind literally chills me to my core. It's a race against time as my fingers lose their dexterity, my feet go numb and my brain slows to a snail's pace. I struggle to turn the wheel nuts tight. The brake cables refuse to go into place. Sand is everywhere. My fingers stop working.

Bernie calls time and dispatches me to the hotel's hot tub to warm up. "You did a good job. You weren't the mummy's boy I was expecting."

A cup of tea later and we're on the chain ferry to the Isle of Purbeck for the next phase of my conditioning programme – a run in the sand dunes and then a mountain bike around the island. To my pleasant surprise, Bernie doesn't yell into my ear like a drill sergeant.

"In the special forces we don't shout. It's not about beasting you. That will not get you through this. We have to train intelligently."

Retracing The Heroes of Telemark route is just one element of expedition Tusen Takk, which translates as "a thousand thanks" in homage to our Norwegian hosts.

For the expedition leader Lt Col Green, 47, and many of the other members of the team, it is a personal journey. Five months ago Green lost his wife to cancer. In 2008, Col Jim Hutton lost his son, also a Marine, in a training accident. His wife was also recently diagnosed with cancer. The disease is also close to home for Major Willie Ferguson, whose 18-year-old son was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2006.

The expedition is hoping to raise several thousand pounds for Service and cancer charities.

Another aim is to pass on the skills and experience of the older members of the team, who between them have 160 years of service history, to the younger members, who are aged 19 to 22.

"It's going to be an interesting contrast with six young fit Royal Marines who will be raring to go, against the old guard who haven't been to Norway for some time," Lt Col Green says.

During the expedition we will expect temperatures as low as -20F (-29C) and have a climb equivalent to the height of Mount Everest.

"It will be tough," Lt Col Green concedes. "But you can overcome fatigue through fitness, nutrition and a little thing in which we specialise in the Corps called determination."

Back at his performance centre, Bernie tells me he feels honoured to have been invited onto the team.

He's not the only one. Although I'm also a little scared.

? The expedition is raising funds for The Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund, Macmillan and Clic Sargent. To make a donation or read more about the journey, go to tusentakk.co.uk